These Sustainably Produced Cleaning Wipes Herald A Manufacturing Revolution

Chemical manufacturer Solugen, which uses an enzymatic process to turn plant sugars into hydrogen peroxide, announced today that they're introducing a new line of cleaning wipes, using its hydrogen peroxide compound and biodegradable wipes. The wipes, called Ode to Clean, will start out being sold directly over the internet to businesses and consumers.

But what's interesting about Solugen isn't that they're putting another cleaning wipe on the market. What's interesting is how they're manufacturing them.

Traditionally, hydrogen peroxide, which can be used for applications as various as a disinfectant, as rocket fuel, and as a precursor for making polyurethanes, is manufactured through a process developed back in the 1930s. That process is both energy-intensive and expensive. It also involves some complicated chemistry to break down chemicals that are derived from oil. Solugen's process, by contrast, uses enzymes derived from microorganisms that break down plant sugars and turn them into hydrogen peroxide. The process produces no harmful byproducts and is signficantly less expensive.

It's a process that Solugen's founders, Gaurab Chakrabarti and Sean Hunt (who were named to 2017's 30 Under 30 List in Manufacturing), discovered almost inadvertently. Chakrabarti was involved in pancreatic cancer research when he discovered an enzyme that could very efficiently turn sugar into hydrogen peroxide. Hunt at the time was working on the use of nanoparticles to improve traditional methods of hydrogen peroxide manufacturing. Combining their expertise, they founded Solugen to ramp up production of the enzymes in their own reactor and tested it with a variety of different kinds of sugars.

"We've used sugar, we've used plant starch - you can kinda feed anything into it," said Hunt.

Chakrabarti adds this versatility has been a selling point in talking about licensing their reactor technology in different parts of the world. "One reason we’re excited about that is because we’re talking to people in India, where cane sugar is cheap and common. And Chile, where it's beet sugar," he said. But the key thing is that because it doesn't use traditional techniques, "We don't have to rely on the petroleum infrastructure - we can just use what’s local."

The bioreactor that Solugen uses to manufacture hydrogen peroxide isn't only the result of an inadvertent discovery. It would have been impossible to build even five years ago, says Chakrabarti. But now that genomes of microorganisms can be rapidly edited with CRISPR/Cas9 techniques, the enzymes that turn sugar into hydrogen peroxide can be created cheaply and at scale.

"Enzymes have always been expensive," he said. "But with CRISPR/Cas9, that's not the case. Chemical syntheses via enzymes are going to be cheaper and more efficient. Enzymes are a lot more robust."

The company's new product announcement comes as the company has announced its raised $4.4 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Refactor Capital, and other investors. The investment money is being used to scale up the company's production at its plant in Houston, as well as beginning partnerships with other investors.

But Hunt and Chakrabarti have much, much bigger ambitions than their new line of wipes. For them, the new products are key to building a bigger company that takes advantage of new technology to transform the way common chemicals are manufactured. The bioreactor the company has developed can be used for many other applications besides making hydrogen peroxide.

"Right now, we're focused on hydrogen peroxide - but we've created a perfect reactor for enzymes," says Chakrabarti. "Other companies just want to license the reactor to scale up their own enzyme systems."

In the 1920s and 1930s, a number of big chemical manufacturers that are still around today got their start from a new wave of chemistry that came with the widespread, cheap production of petroleum and new methods of chemical manufacturing. In the long run, Hunt and Chakrabarti see Solugen as following in their footsteps - taking the new technologies of today to produce chemicals in a cheaper, more efficient, and environmentally-friendlier way.

"Our model as a company is 3M," says Hunt. "We want to be the green chemistry version - a company with a strong, broad consumer line but also a strong research team."